


our plans in uppercase

by waveridden



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Other, Other Thrilling Adventure Hour Segments, Season: COUNTER/Weight, it's a very loose moonshine holler fusion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:55:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21822526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waveridden/pseuds/waveridden
Summary: "Eidolons, what are you doing?”Cassander pauses and tries to imagine what Sokrates sees right now. They’re clearly packing a bag, the smallest bag they own. There’s an assortment of money and valuables laid out on their bed. And Mako’s garish, awful jacket is slung over the back of a chair.“Well,” Cassander says slowly. “The short answer is running away?”
Relationships: Cassander Timaeus Berenice/Mako Trig
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20
Collections: 2019 AU December Challenge





	our plans in uppercase

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is part of the AUcember series, a self-made challenge where I try to write a new AU one-shot every day. You can read all of the AUcember fics in the collection linked above. Title is from Adore You by Maisie Peters.
> 
> This is loosely based on [the Down in Moonshine Holler segments from the Thrilling Adventure Hour.](https://thrilling-adventure-hour.fandom.com/wiki/Down_in_Moonshine_Holler) The tl;dr is: a millionaire renounces his riches and becomes a vagrant in order to find his one true love, the Hobo Princess. It's a very campy fairytale. This is... a sort of campy sci-fi fairytale.
> 
> All my love to Tam, who I think originally had this idea. Sorry I keep stealing your ideas, darling. In my defense, this one was good as hell.

Sokrates nudges Cassander and points over at one of the hors d'oeuvres tables. “I think our party is being crashed.”

Cassander follows their finger over to the table. There’s a guy there wearing a brightly colored tuxedo, garish but not bad enough that he’s standing out. What makes him stand out is that he appears to be frantically shoving hors d’oeuvres into his jacket.

They snort. “At least that’s a pretty non-malicious party crasher, right?”

“Oh, it’s incredible,” Sokrates says brightly. “What we have here is a modern hero, making things interesting.”

Sokrates wants to be here about as much as Cassander does, which is to say, not at all. But Euanthe likes these gala-type things, and both of them are trying to be decent siblings by showing up to this one. It’s tremendously boring, but they’re both doing their best here.

“Are you going to stop him?” Cassander says skeptically.

“Oh, absolutely not. I’m hoping nobody does, I just want to watch this unfold.”

“Don’t you want to know why he’s here?”

Sokrates shoots Cassander a look of amusement. “I think you want to know why he’s here.”

“You can’t tell me you’re not curious at all.”

“You could always go speak to him.”

“I-” Cassander pauses. This party is boring. And it’s not every day someone tries to crash a party. “You know what? I think I will.”

“Abandoning me,” Sokrates gasps dramatically. Cassander turns to glare at them, and they wave Cassander away. “Go, have fun, I can find someone else to entertain me.”

Cassander smoothes down the front of their outfit. “You could always entertain yourself,” they say primly, and make their way over to the hors d’oeuvre table as Sokrates laughs behind them.

The hors d’oeuvre thief turns around as Cassander approaches, and their face lights up. “Oh, man, I thought I was the only person who was gonna take advantage of the free food,” they say, clearly delighted. “I’m glad to see someone else around here has a head on their shoulders. And room in their stomach, probably. You wanna share?”

“Please tell me you don’t mean the ones in your jacket,” Cassander says automatically. “I can get my own.”

“Uh, that’s not sharing, though.”

“What if yours are sweaty?”

“Adding salt,” he says, and winks. Cassander shudders without meaning to, and his grin widens. “Grab a plate, I’m gonna go outside and we can, like, talk about how stuffy everyone here looks.”

He leaves before Cassander can say one way or the other if they’re going to follow him. They huff out a confused breath, but they make sure to watch which balcony he goes out onto as they grab a plate. It’s only a couple minutes before they’re joining him, weaving through the crowd. They make sure to snag a couple of champagne glasses, holding them carefully in one hand. If their guest doesn’t drink, they could definitely use the second glass.

The stranger is leaning against the back rail of the balcony, clearly doing something in the Mesh. As soon as he sees Cassander, he grins and makes a motion with his hand like he’s swiping something away. “You brought drinks? Sweet.”

Cassander lets him take one of the glasses and settles back against the rail of the balcony, standing next to him. “I didn’t catch your name earlier.”

“I’m Mako.” He takes a drink of champagne and sets the glass on the rail. “You look less stuck up than everyone else here, what’s your name?”

Cassander snorts, but they rest their plate of hors d’oeuvres on the rail. “I’m, uh, Cassander…” they pause, considering sharing the rest of their titles, but they find that they don’t want to. If this man looks at everyone else and says they’re stuffy, then there’s a pretty good chance that he doesn’t know them. And they’re okay with that. “Just Cassander.”

“Just Cassander,” Mako repeats. “Whew, long name. You got any nicknames?”

“Nicknames?”

“Yeah, like…” he scrunches up his face in consideration. “Cass. Cassie. Anders. Andy. Ew, you don’t look like an Andy.”

“Nobody’s ever called me Andy.” They pause. Sokrates and Euanthe had called them Cassie when they were all much, much younger. It’s a childish nickname, one that they grew out of a long time ago. But… “I don’t mind Cass.”

“Cass,” Mako repeats. “Cool. Well, Cass, thank you for not throwing me out of the fancy party here just for stealing snacks.”

“That’s hardly the worst offense in the world.”

“I mean, a lot of people would disagree with you. I’ve been thrown out of plenty of parties for stealing food. And for generally crashing them.”

“I think it might be that second thing that gets you thrown out.”

He waves a hand in the hair. “Eh, tomato, tomato.” He says it the same way both times, which Cassander is fairly sure defeats the point of it, but he doesn’t seem to mind. “I’m just glad you could be my accomplice here.”

“I don’t think I’m an accomplice,” Cassander points out. “I didn’t steal anything myself.”

“Yeah, but you’re encouraging me. Maybe I’m gonna be daring now. Maybe I’m going to steal a fork or something.”

Cassander hums and takes a sip of their champagne. “The height of scandal,” they say in a monotone.

Mako snorts, a strange and un-self-conscious noise. Cassander finds themself leaning towards it; it’s not often they find someone who doesn’t try to hide their snorts of laughter. Mako just smiles at them, looking remarkably out of place and at ease, all at once.

Cassander smiles. This is going to be a good night.

#

“Cassaaaaaander,” Sokrates calls from outside their rooms. That’s all the warning they get before Sokrates pushes their door open. “Don’t tell me you’re still - Eidolons, what are you doing?”

Cassander pauses and tries to imagine what Sokrates sees right now. They’re clearly packing a bag, the smallest bag they own. There’s an assortment of money and valuables laid out on their bed. And Mako’s garish, awful jacket is slung over the back of a chair.

“Well,” Cassander says slowly. “The short answer is running away?”

Sokrates blinks and slowly closes the door behind them. “Is this something to do with the snack thief from last night?”

“Sort of.” Cassander sits back on their heels. They’re kneeling on the floor, and without hesitation, Sokrates sits down next to them, cross-legged and patient. Cassander sighs. “He described himself as a drifter, and something about that sounds nice.”

“I don’t think you’re much of a drifter.”

“Maybe not. But I don’t think I’m much of a…” they gesture around the room. “Much of a scion, I suppose.”

“You and I are both barely scions,” Sokrates murmurs, but they rest a hand on Cassander’s knee. “I’m glad I caught you before you leave.”

They swallow. “Yeah?”

Sokrates smiles at them sadly. “I’ve thought about running away again, a hundred times over. But I think that right now I can do the most good here, arguing with Euanthe and everyone around them. I need to be here wrecking shit. You don’t.”

Cassander laughs, a strange and sad sound to their own ears. “I’m not going to be gone forever or anything, Sokrates, you don’t have to act like you’re never going to see me again.”

“I know,” Sokrates huffs, and squeezes Cassander’s knee. “I’m hoping that you stay in touch, because we have ways to do that, you know. But if you’re running away, you should at least make sure you bring sensible shoes, because that’s the kind of thing that’s easy to forget when you’re in a hurry.”

They lean over to their suitcase and lift up one shoe, a nice, sturdy one. “I’ve got it covered.”

“Impressive. So tell me, why is the snack thief’s jacket in your room?”

Cassander feels themself blush, even though they definitely don’t mean to. “He, uh, told me to keep it as a souvenir. Said that if we ever crossed paths again I could give it back to him.”

“That’s romantic.”

“He said it in the least romantic way possible.” They pause. “But he did say he wanted to see me again.”

Sokrates nods. “Do you know where to find him?”

“He mentioned a couple of places that he was considering travelling to. I’m going to go after him, but I think I’ll take the long way around.” Cassander rests their hand on top of Sokrates’ and squeezes lightly. “I promise I’ll keep in touch.”

“You’d better,” Sokrates murmurs threateningly. “Let me know before you leave so I can run interference with Euanthe.”

“Of course.”

“And have fun out there, Cassander. It’s a big galaxy, it’s about time that you saw more of it.”

Cassander smiles. “I’ll send you lots of pictures.”

“And pack lots of snacks for your thief friend. He seems like he’ll need them.”

Cassander groans loudly. But not so loudly that they can’t hear Sokrates snickering at them.

#

There’s only one major spaceport in the capital of Apostolos, a huge, bustling thing. Cassander has to wear a hood to hide their face as they move through it. They’re not looking for Mako, exactly, but they also don’t know what to look for. Would a big passenger ship be better? Should they try and find someone who wouldn’t recognize them at all? Maybe they should just try and pay a cargo transport to let them on or something.

They look around slowly, hoping to see a flash of vaguely bluish skin, or some kind of garish jacket. Instead, their gaze settles on a ship docked a ways away, small but big enough to have living quarters. There’s an automated parking unit sitting outside.

Cassander makes their way over to the ship. “Excuse me,” they say, and the parking unit turns to look at them. “I, uh… is the owner of the ship around?”

“You are speaking to the owner of the ship,” says the parking unit. “You may call me AuDy.”

Cassander gives themself exactly two seconds to be flummoxed before they take a breath and try to go back to seeming self-possessed. Maybe lots of parking robots own ships; they wouldn’t know. “I’m looking for a ride off-planet. I’m able to pay you, either in creds or labor for whatever work you do.”

“You do not know what work I do,” AuDy says. “Where are you trying to go?”

They pause and think about it for a second. Mako had mentioned a couple of different potential planets, so it’s really a tossup whether or not they guess right. “Kalliope,” they say hesitantly. If nothing else, it’s a new planet. “Or that general direction.”

AuDy makes a motion that Cassander thinks is supposed to be a nod. “I have a delivery to make to Kalliope. You may accompany me, if you assist with my delivery.”

“I can do that,” Cassander says. “When do we leave?”

“I was planning to leave in thirty minutes. I will give you a tour of the ship.” AuDy turns to the ship, and then back. “You did not say your name.”

“Oh, I’m-” they pause and swallow. This is it, isn’t it? The moment they get to decide. “Cassander. I go by Cass.”

“Cass,” AuDy repeats. “This is the Kingdom Come, Cass. It will be your home for the next several days.”

“Great,” Cass says. Their heart is racing, and it takes them a second to realize why: they’re excited. This is exciting. “I’m looking forward to it.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you also like obscure podcast crossovers, come say hi on Tumblr/Twitter @waveridden!


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